Rob Tornoe

Staff Writer

More than half the country hates the Patriots, and not because they’re cheaters.

President Donald Trump’s public love affair with Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft has infected the Super Bowl this season with a dose of politics so large, its spilling over into the commercials and potentially the halftime show.

I’m about as political as they come, as anyone who follows me on Twitter can attest. And I was 100 percent supportive of players like Malcom Jenkins and Colin Kaepernick when they decided to protest during the national anthem.

ROB TORNOE / Staff Artist

But after the jarring two weeks we all just lived through, sometimes, just sometimes, people just deserve to be able to sit back and enjoy a game for what it is… a distraction from everything else that’s going on.

For once, I don’t blame Brady, even though he put himself in the center of this media maelstrom by displaying one of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats in his locker for everyone to see.

"I don't wanna get into it, but, just — if you know someone, it doesn't mean that you agree with everything that they say or do. Right?" Brady said back in January on Boston sports talk radio.

Trump is a polarizing figure, and I don’t think asking Brady questions about what he thinks about our controversial commander-in-chief is out of bounds. I also don’t think sports figures should be forced to stay in a bubble where any discussion outside the hash marks, including politics, is forbidden.

But for one day, just for one day, can we escape into some mindless bliss and forget everything else that’s going on? I think it'll do wonders for our collective anexity levels, considering we've been overflowing with everything Trump for the past weeks.

We can go back to arguing about Trump and his policies tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.

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Rob Tornoe is the sports cartoonist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.